Yesterday was a quiet, rainy day, with few feedings. Mrs. Goss mainly laid low in the nest to keep her brood dry. Today is another matter. The hawks awoke to sunshine and good hunting. This afternoon, Mrs. Goss brought a large bird to the nest and stood back from the nest bowl as she offered food to the eyasses. The two older and larger ones scrambled out of the bowl toward her and began to feed. Little #3 was left behind, chirping away. S/he soon caught on, however. Making a huge effort, the chick pushed up and out of the nest bowl, then scooted to mama and dinner. As the little one raised up to get a mouthful, s/he overcompensated, and fell backward, cutting a somersault back into the nest bowl. Never mind - there was still plenty of food for all. After the meal, Mrs. Goss scooped up the remains - a large carcass with meat remaining on it - and flew away with it. She returned moments later with a smaller portion and tested her chicks to make sure they were full. She then swept the nest of food, disposing of any remaining crumbs in the most expedient manner - down the hatch.

The Goshawk eyasses continue to thrive. The smallest and last to hatch lags behind at each feeding, but s/he seems to become alert as if thinking "Golly, I'd better get up there and get busy or there won't be anything left." Then s/he assertively pushes forward for the food. Mrs. Goss makes sure all three chicks receive food. I see no playing favorites in this family. Inter-sibling behavior is amiable, if a little pushy at times.

This afternoon, Mrs. Goss stood up and began kak-kak-kaking to the Mister. He flew to the nest with prey, and she immediately began squawking and mantling the food. He took the hint and left her to tend the nest that is so clearly *her* nest. She did a quick fly-about, returning with a piece of bark. Then she retrieved the prey that Goss had left and fed her brood. As soon as the little ones were full, she cleared the table, taking the quite large carcass (probably a medium-sized mammal) and off with it.

Today Mrs. Goss was on alert, watching another bird invading her airspace. At one time, she took off and pursued the intruder through the forest, calling kak-kak-kak as she flew. When she returned, she was still vigilant, intently watching the skies above her.

There is plenty to eat today. The prey appears to be a medium-sized bird. I should note that in the past couple of days, they have dined upon a bird with very long legs and neck, probably some species of waterfowl.

Mrs. Goss continues to bring pine boughs to the nest, and the nest is now almost completely green, including the nest bowl beneath the chicks. Rarely does Mrs. Goss come to the nest empty-taloned. She either has prey, bark, or greenery grasped in her talons or in her beak. Once I observed her arrive grasping prey with the right talons and greenery with the left. Most raptors bring greenery to their nests, but I have never seen a nest quite as green as the goshawks' nest. Suspect purposes include pest control, sanitation, camouflage, and probably other reasons only the bird knows. I have noticed that the eyasses have not yet begun to slice (P.S.) outside the nest. The greenery may have something to do with keeping the nest clean. Perhaps it is Mrs. Goss' way of using fresh materials to rotate and aerate the nest materials. We know she keeps a clean nest - this is just one more trick she has under her wing.

P.S. <pun intended> About 15 minutes after I posted this, one of the eyasses aroused from his nap, turned his little tail up, and P.S.'d right out of the nest bowl and onto Mom's fresh pine needles.

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05-21-13 On Alert.jpg
05-21-13 Arranging the Gr

The three chicks seem content to sit under Mrs. Goss looking out at the world. They are very interested and spend a lot of time looking around like Mrs. Goss does. They are beginning to pick at their feathers as well. They aren't very vocal, only starting the peeping when Mrs. Goss gets up or rearranges the nest material. One backed up to the edge of the nest bowl and PSed out and away. There are no signs of sibling aggression. Wing stretches and then back to being smooshed under Mrs. Goss. Mrs. Goss pulled up a left over one of the kids hid under the bed. The biggest one grabbed it from her and tried to swallow it. The chunk was huge, so Mrs. Goss took it back and re-presented it to two of them. How can they even be hungry after all they've eaten?

Several of us watched and commented today as Dad Goss flew in and fed his babies, a task normally performed by Mama Goss. Our observations about the nestlings prompted me to do a little research and find out what we might expect in the coming days.

Currently, the eyasses are 14, 13, and 12 days old, so they fit into this category (Cornell BNA, Based on Boal 1994 and Schnell 1958):

14–17 days posthatching. Nestlings approximately 20–23 cm long and have molted into second natal down that is gray with a woolly appearance; auricular area downy; pin-feathers encased in sheathing visible in primaries, secondaries, and tail; some feathers may have erupted 1 cm; walks on tarso-metatarsus while extending wings for balance and may stand for brief moments; aware of objects away from nest.

By the end of next week, they should be here:

19–22 days posthatching. Auricular area small feathered patch; primaries, secondaries, and tail erupting from sheaths and contrast with body down; greater-coverts, uppertail-coverts, and scapular feathers starting to erupt; ventral feather track forming pin-feathers under down; walks on feet without using wings for balance and can stand for longer periods and preen; wings frequently flapped for 3–5 s; attempts to rip bites from delivered prey.

Perfect timing for this information and the post is greatly appreciated. This gives us a few things to key in on as we watch them in the nest and observe their interaction with each other, the parents and the environment. Mid-June seems awfully soon, given their size and current development. It is one of the surprising facts about watching raptors, how quickly they grow, change and become mobile. Thanks, R4!

This morning dixnora and I watched Mrs. Goss feed her chicks for about 50-55 minutes. The prey was a huge bird, as we could see from the size of its wing. When Mrs. Goss took the remains away, long legs remained on the carcass. The eyasses had crops the size of ping pong balls, and they literally rolled back into the nest bowl.

Later in the day, I took a pic of Mrs. Goss as she turned around, ready to leave the nest. Look at the length of her tail, a feature common to all accipiters. The tail serves as a rudder and a sort of third wing, helping her to steer through the trees of the forest and make the fast turns necessary to capture avian prey. The three eyasses look surprised to have "tail cover" over the nest bowl.

A little later, more prey was brought to the nest. At first, the eyasses seemed to be too full to care, but suddenly they perked up, unwilling to let any opportunity pass by.

The three chicks were ringed this morning. There are two females and one male. Hopefully they will post some video of this event, as I didn't see it and don't see any posts of viewers who did. I'm guessing they took the cam offline. In pic below, the chick posters are calling "Little" shows off his/her new bling.

The chicks are so white it is hard to see much detail of their feather growth. However, now when they stretch their wings, a darker edge of erupting pin feathers can be seen along the edge of the wing. There's enough tail feather to waggle now too.

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05-27-13 goshawks.jpg
05-27-13 Little show off

The chicks are experiencing rain today for the first time since they were tiny and Mrs. Goss could completely cover them. Now they won't all fit under her Mombrella. At one point, Mrs. Goss squatted over them, using her tail as a tarp. That was not entirely satisfactory, however; the chicks still want to snuggle their heads up under the cozy feathers of her breast.

Goss has brought food to the nest, but Mama Goss still shelters her chicks. Here, you can see one of the chicks heading backwards toward the tail-tarp. Notice the emerging feathers all along his/her wing. And the size of the feet!

The chicks are in their rapid development phase. They are now covered with their second down and able to thermoregulate. Flight feathers on their wings and tails are developing nicely. And today is a milestone! The chicks have discovered what their legs are for. They are not only standing up, but lumbering about the nest like teenagers with their first pair of high heels. It's interesting that "Little" (#3) is also standing. I suspect #3 is a male, since he is smaller but also developing at a rate equal to his siblings. There's quite a bit of wing stretching and a little flapping going on today too.

The chicks are learning to self-feed. Today a parent dropped food into the nest and #1 immediately seized it. After playing with it for awhile, she began picking at it while still holding it with her talons. Pretty soon she had the hang of grasp, pluck, eat. A second food drop was made, and #2 jumped on it, wobbling on his legs while trying to get a bite. Clearly he does not want to be left out. A third food drop was made, and #1 mantled over it! How quickly they learn! But what about Little, #3? Not to worry! Dad Goss soon came in with a larger portion and fed all three. All three are becoming more and more aggressive for food, mantling and doing a little shoving and stealing (including #3 - she may become the best thief of all).

At this point in the development of the eyasses, food will be dropped more and more often. Although Goss removed the scraps today, the clearing of the table will soon be left to the kids. Mum and Dad will no longer have to perform that chore.

Late in the afternoon, Goss brought prey to the nest, landing with a great thud and depositing what looked like a mammal bigger than he was. The chicks were jumping up and down, flapping their wings, and in general letting Papa know they were happy with their dinner. We never got a good look at the crittur's face, but the bottom part lay open for inspection. Big legs and tiny feet. Once, when Goss flung the crittur over, we could see a long hairless tail. Hiker & SCluv and I concluded it may have been an opposum. Do they even have opposums in the U.K.? I posted an inquiry. Maybe someone who knows was watching. They feasted on this beast for a very long time, until each chick had a crop about the size of a ping pong ball. When Mrs. Goss came home to tuck them in after the feeding, she found the chicks deep in the throes of food coma.

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06-03-13 Opposum for Dinn

All three chicks think they surely must be about grown up by now. They prance about the nest and flap their wings, with a practice jump every now and then. We can still tell which chick is "Little," the third hatch, because her feathers are not as fully developed as her siblings. She still has a lot of white down showing. However, she is about the same size as the other two, and likes to strut her stuff. That is "Little" in the first pic below, "flying" across the nest.

In the second photo, Little is on the right. I can see the pattern of vertical streaks forming on the breast of the chick on the left, facing the camera. Juvenile goshawks have a vertical pattern and look very similar to other accipiter juvies until their first molt, when they will sport the fine gray horizontal bands of an adult goshawk.

Mum and Dad Goshawk are giving their chicks every opportunity to learn self-feeding. They drop prey into the nest and leave the chicks to decide how to go about eating it. Typically one will attack the prey until it gives out; then another one will have a go at it. Then after all have picked over the easy parts, Dad will come back for a demonstration of how it's done. It doesn't appear that anyone is going hungry.

There's no need to worry about Little's ability to compete with her siblings for food. Today Goss made a food drop, and Little pounced upon it, mantling and kak kak ing like a big bird. Here she is enjoying her meal, while #1 and #2 try to pretend they don't care.

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06-07-13 Little Gets the

I watched a feeding today that lasted at least 20 minutes. The parent fed as fast as it could with the babies snatching the food being offered even faster! They would even grab a bite from a sibling's mouth they were in such a feeding frenzy. There were two big prey items on the nest and I believe the one the parent was feeding from was a rabbit. Little tiny bites are offered to the babies and the parent was in constant motion pulling pieces from the carcass. Many hundreds of times it bent it's neck to tear off a bite and stretch forward to give it to the chicks. Their necks and legs must be awfully strong. When the feeding was finally over and everybody seemed to be full, the rabbit carcass was taken away from the nest but the other big meal is still there.

The little goshawks are all sporting new juvenile plumage now, with flight feathers still developing and dark vertical streaks covering their breasts. The heads of the older two are now dark with feathers; only Little, the youngest, can still be identified by her black and white head feathers. She is not "little" in size, however, and is larger than one of the older siblings (presumably the male).

At least one of the little birds has branched, probably both of the older ones. One will go "off cam" for awhile and then reappear on the nest with a thud. Little remains nest-bound for now.

Carcasses and bits of food now litter the nest. The parents now leave food on the nest to encourage the young hawks to self-feed, an art they haven't completely mastered. Once or twice a day, one of the parents will help them along with a feeding. All three pull up to the table, but Little has the most urgency for food, begging continuously and eagerly grasping for food, even when her crop is bulging. The older two seem to know when enough is enough and wander off to a corner of the nest or hop onto a nearby branch.

The young hawks (at least the two older ones) now kak-kak-kak like adults. I have not noticed Little doing that yet.

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06-13-13 Two in the Nest